Which Is It? I Still Don't Fully Understand.

[sail7seas]

:confused: I still don't really know the answer.

 

I have been told that all cruise manifests must be submitted to TSA 72 hours prior to the ship entering a U.S. Port. That gives them time to investigate if there is someone on board in which TSA has an interest.

 

BUT, I know I have read that people have purchased cruises 48 hours prior to cruising, checked in at the dock without documents and boarded with the rest of the pax.

 

How can both be accurate?

 

Or is it that the pax can board and leave the country without TSA investigating.....but TSA won't let them re-enter without examining their 'wanted lists'?

 

With the recent events in London, I got to thinking about this while we were on Maasdam.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Good question!!!

 

I don't know the answer but certainly hope that someone here does know.

 

I have been wondering the same thing for the last few months wondering how people were able to book cruises literally within the last 48 hours before the ship sails.

[jhannah]

Good question. I wonder if lists are submitted in advance of the cruise at all. I know it's speculated, but is anyone here intimately familiar with security measures and know for sure? Consider how relatively few of us go online to fill out our immigration form, which includes our passport number. The vast majority of passengers don't present their ID until they check in at the pier, so passport numbers aren't even available to the authorities until that time.

 

We never hear the captain say the ship has been cleared for departure. It's always that we're cleared for disembarkation. So it would seem that authorities are checking at that time -- upon entry to the country -- and not upon departure.

[newmexicoNita]

I too question that; someone just call the cruiseline and try: I can almost guarantee you they are not allowing bookings 48 hours out, but I guess anything can happen at anytime. This is not the norm. As for showing up without docs, that is different. You do not need docs to board, you do need the right ID and this is an absolute must; always has been. Let's hear from someone who has booked 48 hours out and when this was. NMNita

[sail7seas]

 

I hope we don't get off track with a discussion of needing documents/ID to board. I really am interested in the question of Homeland Security/TSA examination of Manifests. Thanks.

 

[newmexicoNita]

 

I hope we don't get off track with a discussion of needing documents/ID to board. I really am interested in the question of Homeland Security/TSA examination of Manifests. Thanks.

 

Wow, I was only pointing out one thing: docs no, id yes!!!! I didn't mean to get you so upset....

[waterbug1]

Here is a link to a statement regarding cruise line security from The International Council of Cruise Lines. http://www.iccl.org/pressroom/pressrelease.cfm?whichrel=105 .

 

Also, this is a paragraph taken from the CC website:

 

"Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Requirements: The DHS now requires cruise lines to provide a passenger manifest 96 hours before entering into any U.S. port. This is one of the reasons why cruise lines are increasingly offering passengers incentives to provide their personal information well in advance. For instance, Carnival, which encourages pre-registration on its Web site, gives folks who submit information 40 days prior to cruise date a pass to fast track through the embarkation process."

 

I believe that these may help to clarify a few things, if not completely answer all of your questions.

[sail7seas]

Thanks, waterbug........ That is helpful. Seeing as we were aboard a ship at the time of the London arrests/terrorism plots, it got me thinking.

 

 

 

[dakrewser]

Remember that the manifests must be provided before entering a US port for pax on the ship at the time of entry.

 

Embarking is leaving the port, not entering it. So booking the cabin even 6 hours before leaving, say, FLL would be fine as long as the next port wasn't in the US or wasn't due for 4 days. A 3-day Bermuda cruise might be out, but the typical 7-day Caribbean wouldn't be a problem. Just as a northbound (or southbound) inside passage would present a problem, but a Mexican Riviera cruise wouldn't. Circle Hawaii would be fine, but Boston-Montreal (or reverse) wouldn't.

 

So, as with many things, the correct answer is: "it depends..." :)

[waterbug1]

sail7seas,

You are welcome. This is an issue, that I am sure, is a concern to many of us. Thank you for introducing this important subject.

[DFD1]

Sail, I suspect you are right. It's likely that the departure is not of nearly so much concern as the entry into a port.

 

Seems logical, anyway.

[ekerr19]

Speaking from a recent personal experience:

 

I have had the same Passport since 2000 and have travelled extensively, both domestically and internationally.

 

Back in May 2006, I embarked on a RCCI cruise from Los Angeles and disembarked in the same port 5 days later... upon returning to LA, I was informed my Passport had been flagged with a warrant for my arrest. I was told that the warrant did not appear until the passenger manifests were checked the night before the ship was due to arrive back in Los Angeles.

 

Because this was a case of mistaken identity and the person they were actually seeking had a non-extradition warrant (my understanding of this is that the individual could only be apprehended in Los Angeles or Orange Counties) it had never surfaced on my Passport in the manner it did until I was coming back into the country via the port of LA.

 

Unfortunately, it took the authorities five days before they understood they had the wrong person. It took even longer to clear my Passport.

 

I have learned that it is the port of entry which will flag the Passport and I was also told some ports are much stricter than others...

 

I just hope it never happens to me again. :o

[ekerr19]

OOPS - double post - sorry!

[AlohaPride]

Speaking from a recent personal experience:

 

I have had the same Passport since 2000 and have travelled extensively, both domestically and internationally.

 

Back in May 2006, I embarked on a RCCI cruise from Los Angeles and disembarked in the same port 5 days later... upon returning to LA, I was informed my Passport had been flagged with a warrant for my arrest. I was told that the warrant did not appear until the passenger manifests were checked the night before the ship was due to arrive back in Los Angeles.

 

Because this was a case of mistaken identity and the person they were actually seeking had a non-extradition warrant (my understanding of this is that the individual could only be apprehended in Los Angeles or Orange Counties) it had never surfaced on my Passport in the manner it did until I was coming back into the country via the port of LA.

 

Unfortunately, it took the authorities five days before they understood they had the wrong person. It took even longer to clear my Passport.

 

I have learned that it is the port of entry which will flag the Passport and I was also told some ports are much stricter than others...

 

I just hope it never happens to me again. :o

 

WOW!!

[Stevesan]

Requiring a manifest in advance doesn't preclude amending it with late bookings.

 

Considering that economics trumps security, that would be a logical condition.

[Jemima]

Just recieved a pre-cruise packet for a Princess Cruise in November. The cover letter states that the "passenger information form" must be completed online or by mail no later than 14 days before the cruise & that they are required to provide this information to authorities prior to the cruise. Not doing so will result in delays or denied boarding.

(This is a group cruise which I wish was on HAL instead of Princess.)

[3 Fan]

Our daughter is a Sheriff's Deputy. She is a Court Officer, working directly with the DA's office and the Courts. A couple of months ago she received a call from US Immigration. A person was returning to Tampa via cruise ship in 2 days who had an outstanding arrest warrant. They told her that when the passenger list was being checked a "flag" went up next to his name. It was not the way he planned on ending his cruise.

[elmorejj]

So the moral of the story is: pay all of your parking tickets before you leave home, or you might be arrested on your way back!!!;)

[zorbaj]

The requirement that the cruise lines electronically provide a complete Crew and Passenger manifest is not a TSA requirement but a requirement of Customs and Border Protection which is also a bureau in Homeland Security. The requirement is that this manifest be sent in advance of the arrival into the US after the vessel has gone foreign. So that means that for ships leaving Vicoria BC at midnight and arriving in Seattle 6 hours later the manifest can change in those last six hours. For the most part the passengers leaving Seattle are the same ones coming back a week later but the crew often changes in the various ports including Victoria. And by the way US Immigration ceased to exist as of March 31, 2003. The Immigration and Naturalization Service divided into three separate parts and was stuck in Homeland Security.

[u4ea]

If I may weigh in to the OP. IMHO, and as previously stated, it’s a paperwork issue as well as all the red tape.

It reminds me of my researching tramp freighter travel. A couple of years ago, Olgendorff stopped taking passengers on their tramp freighters due to the amount of paperwork involved. It’s too bad, even though I know their business is transporting freight, that type of travel is lost, and it was cheap too. Like $50 a day. Looks like that type of travel is a thing of the past now.:(

Mark….

[aaerobear]

You know that all international airlines have to send their manifests to the US Immigrations officials as well. once a flight leaves it's last international city the airline sends the entire manifest to the US.

[serendipity1499]

This has always been the case..Customs, Border Patrol & Immigrations which is part of the Dept. Homeland Security only cares about Airline & Cruise Passengers who are arriving into the US from a foreign country..

 

However, there were times when we had to go through our Manifests to see if someone who was wanted by the Police or FBI had travelled to Europe on one of our flights...What a pain that was, because more often than not they wanted us to check manifests for flights during an entire month & they wanted the information "Yesterday"...We often had to pull more than one agent off the phones during peak times to go through our manifests..

[aaerobear]

But rest assured that some other countries are even worse (or they were)

 

When we were going to start flying to KL (kuala lumpur) we were informed by their goverment that we needed 7 printed copies of the passenger mainfest to hand over to the officials at arrival. This meant that the agents would have to close out the flight early and then have the 7 copies copied/printed and returned to the purser on the flight before it could leave.

 

Ed